


Here It Goes Again

by StormyDaze



Category: Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Suicide, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-03
Updated: 2019-06-03
Packaged: 2020-04-06 22:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19072258
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StormyDaze/pseuds/StormyDaze
Summary: When Monokuma says they must kill to leave the island, Komaeda hatches a plan. He can’t let these beacons of hope perish here. If he has to sacrifice himself to bring them together, well, it’s only as much as he deserves.





	Here It Goes Again

**Author's Note:**

  * For [graveExcitement](https://archiveofourown.org/users/graveExcitement/gifts).



When Monokuma says they must kill to leave the island, Komaeda hatches a plan. He can’t let these beacons of Hope perish here. If he has to sacrifice himself to bring them together, well, it’s only as much as he deserves.

Everything goes according to plan. Hanamura is almost too easy to goad, and he only takes a little nudging to convince him that Komaeda’s idea was his own. Komaeda didn’t count on Togami pushing him out from under the table and banging his head on it to boot, but a death is a death, and now he has the opportunity to play antagonist in the trial, drawing everyone else closer together.

He doesn’t know why he expects Hinata to put the pieces together; there doesn’t seem to be anything special about him, and Komaeda is usually good at picking up on people’s talents. Still, he feels oddly disappointed as the trial drags on and no one accuses him of lying. Maybe he’s playing his role a little too well. He tries to back off, but the damage is done.

He laughs when the vote him guilty, and when flames surround the courtroom and he feels them begin to lick at his skin.

************

And then he wakes up on the beach.

Is this some kind of trick? Was Monokuma lying about killing them all if they failed to identify the killer? Maybe it’s no fun for him if the game is over too quickly. 

Komaeda spots Hinata lying a little ways away and picks himself up off the sand to go see him. After what he just did in the courtroom, he doesn’t expect Hinata to want anything to do with him, but he might as well try.

“I don’t understand,” Hinata says. “Why am I here?”

It soon becomes apparent that nobody else remembers anything that happened, either. They have to go through the whole process of introducing themselves again, listening to Usami explain the rules of the island, and watching Monokuma rise up and take control. None of the other students give any sign that they’ve lived this before. Komaeda doesn’t say anything. He already knows they won’t believe him, and it wouldn’t do him any good, anyway.

At a second look, his plan from… yesterday? Later today? …is mostly sound. He knows to expect Togami to shove him out from under the table, and is able to avoid banging his head on it, which is a plus.

He does tone down the “evil psycho killer” vibe at the trial. He finds himself watching Hinata. _Come on, put it together._

Hinata does. What a shining beacon of hope. Komaeda couldn’t be prouder. 

************

It’s not surprising that they don’t trust him after that. It’s okay. Komaeda is willing to be their stepping stone. 

He can’t do much on that front if he’s tied up, but he’s still high on his previous victory. Surely they can manage this one without him. Surely.

When the darkness starts to creep across his vision, he has to contend with the possibility that he might be wrong about that.

************

He wakes up on the beach.

Komaeda says his lines through the introduction, but doesn’t pay much attention to it beyond that. He’s days ahead of the rest of them, already trying to figure out a way to escape bonds that haven’t even been tied yet.

His performance at the first trial is his best one yet. He thinks he’s becoming quite the actor. Not Ultimate level, of course, but not bad for a mediocre student such as himself.

Monomi proves to be the weak link in springing him from his rope prison, and then he’s off gathering clues. This murder is cleverly done; the perpetrator is a true symbol of hope. It’s almost a shame that Monokuma doesn’t fall for Peko’s argument that she is just a sword. Komaeda would never have thought of something so clever, although no one would expect an average student like him to do so. 

Ultimately, though, Peko is not good enough, and must be eliminated on the path to Ultimate Hope.

************

Komaeda doesn’t plan on coming down with Despair Disease. 

It’s _awful._ He doesn’t seem to have any kind of control over his body or his mouth, lies and nonsense spilling out like water from a fountain. Hinata comes to see him, and Komaeda smiles at him. Hinata has nice eyes. Has anyone ever told him how nice his eyes are? Komaeda should tell him. Maybe that can be his talent. Ultimate Amazing Eyes.

Komaeda just needs to rest for a second. Just a minute.

************

He wakes up on the beach.

************

He wakes up on the beach.

************

He wakes up on the beach.

************

The most annoying thing is that _Komaeda can’t do anything about it._ Every time he comes down with the Despair Disease, it hits him harder than anyone else. He wouldn’t mind being sacrificed for hope, but dying in bed of illness doesn’t help anyone, and that’s the maddening thing.

When he opens his eyes in the hospital instead of on the beach, he’s confused. He wonders what caused the change, why the disease didn’t kill him this time. Maybe Monokuma changed the way the disease works. Or maybe it was just luck, and he was unlucky before he was lucky. Story of his life, really. Not that it really matters. There’s a mystery to solve. Komaeda thinks Hinata’s talent for hope is developing very nicely.

************

It takes Komaeda _eight tries_ to survive Russian Roulette and make it through the Final Dead Room.

On the positive side, he’s probably the only person on Earth who can accurately describe what a gunshot to the head feels like, so that’s fun!

On the other positive side, this is giving him an interesting insight into how his Ultimate Luck works. Perhaps he’s no more lucky than any other student, it’s just that he gets the chance to redo things until they go his way. Fascinating!

On the negative side, he’s getting bored of redoing certain parts of this adventure. He can recite Usami’s opening rules speech from memory, and he’s very tired of cleaning the old building. But if he doesn’t clean it, Togami doesn’t die, and only death can create the Ultimate Hope. Komaeda might not believe in much, but he does still believe in that.

Maybe he lets some of that frustration boil over, because when he finally sees what’s in the Final Dead Room, he just about loses it. How many times has he died to create hope, when he’s been surrounded by Ultimate Despair all along. All his work, all his scheming, all his death, for nothing.

It’s hard to keep his spirit down for long, though. He can still create Ultimate Hope. He can _be_ Ultimate Hope, by destroying Ultimate Despair.

************

This time, Komaeda doesn’t rush things. He plans everything, every misdirection, every twist and turn in this sordid tale. He’s pretty sure that if he wakes up on that beach again, he’s just going to murder all of them with his bare hands for some variety.

Maybe this is the reason he keeps coming back. His purpose is to destroy Ultimate Despair. Even in the past, when they’ve lost the trial, a killer has still been free, free to escape and spread despair. This time, he’ll make sure only the traitor, only the true source of hope, survives. 

He lies down on the floor in the warehouse and closes his eyes and hopes he won’t wake up again.

**Author's Note:**

> If you managed to find this in the general SDR2 tag, I just want to state for the record that this was a pinch hit for an exchange and I had less than 24 hours to finish it, so some details may be off. I have never written for SDR2 before and am not 100% familiar with norms for this fandom. Sorry! I did my best.


End file.
